


As the last embers die

by smaragdbird



Series: Terror Rare Pair Week [25]
Category: The Terror (TV 2018)
Genre: Canon Compliant, Canonical Character Death, M/M, Sad, Together in Death, dying regrets
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-11-17
Updated: 2019-11-17
Packaged: 2021-02-08 05:28:08
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 554
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21470791
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/smaragdbird/pseuds/smaragdbird
Summary: Written for the Terror Rare Pair WeekAs he lies dying, Le Vesconte's only regret is breaking his promise to James that he would live.
Relationships: Commander James Fitzjames/Lt Henry T. D. Le Vesconte
Series: Terror Rare Pair Week [25]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1542748
Comments: 2
Kudos: 21
Collections: The Terror Rarepair Week 2019





	As the last embers die

Leaving the sick behind to die lightened their load less than needed.

Eating their dead even though it was fresh meat, did not save them from sickness.

Reaching the mainland was not their salvation.

It was getting colder and Henry knew they had to leave but none of the men had strength anymore. They would need to be beyond the treeline by the start of winter but every day fewer and fewer men even had the will to keep their fires going.

Every night fewer fires were burning and every morning they’d find more and more corpses.

At least he could take comfort in the thought that he hadn’t lost his mind like Edward had, mutilating his face with chains. 

Henry hadn’t needed to ask him to know why he did it.

Regret.

Perhaps he would do the same if James hadn’t absolved him before his death.

Edward had thought that leaving the sick behind had been his idea. That eating the dead had been his idea. James had told him both as he had lain dying.

/

_“Promise me you will live”, James said, grasping his hand with surprising strength for a dying man._

_“I think we’re past promises”, Henry replied, not bothering to hide the tears. _

_“You have to live, for both of us”, James rasped. “Tell Francis to leave me behind. Tell him to use the dead to feed the living. It’s better that some of you live than all of us die.”_

_“He’ll never do that.” Henry didn’t need to know Crozier well to know that. _

_“Then make him see reason. Or Edward. He’s a reasonable man.”_

_“Even if I survive, what do you want me to tell your family? That I abandoned you as you lay dying? That I devoured your corpse to prolong my own miserable life for another day?”_

_“I know you can keep a secret, Dundy.”_

_The nickname only made it worse. There were rules for this kind of situation, laid out in novels and poetry. One did not abandon the love of their life. And one certainly didn’t eat their body to survive. It was an idea so vile, no one would ever write it._

_Henry cried, resting his face against James’ chest. “I promise.”_

_He felt James’ hand weakly caress his hair. “I love you.”_

/

Henry knew he needed to get up to stoke the fire. Night was falling around them, but he was tired and what did the fire matter anyway? He had broken his promise to James. He had broken all oaths and bonds and rules and it had brought him nowhere. 

He should be in England, him and James, celebrated heroic discoverers of the Northwest Passage. There would be parties and balls and laughter. Quiet nights where they’d retire to their rooms to have a celebration of their own, where he could lose himself in James’ tight embrace.

He saw a ballroom, empty but glittering with lights, and James in the middle, in the dress uniform of an admiral, smiling at him. “What took you so long?”

“I was trying to keep your promise, I did.”

“I know you did your best.”

The music picked up and James extended a hand towards him. “Shall we?”

“I love you, too”, Henry said as he took his hand and the last embers died out.


End file.
